There is a growing demand for captioning on television and other AV broadcasts because of the increasing number of hearing impaired individuals. This demand has been enhanced by the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1992 (“ADA”), which makes captioning mandatory in many corporate and governmental situations.
There are several methods for providing AV signals with closed or open caption information. One method involves online captioning where the captioning information is provided to the video signal as an event occurs. Online captions are either typed-in from a script or are typed-in in real-time by stenographers as the AV signal is broadcast. Examples where online captioning is typically used are television news shows, live seminars and sports events. Unfortunately, if the speaker or speakers captured on the AV signal deviate from the script(s), then the captions will not match what is actually being spoken. Additionally, the individuals entering the audio signal are prone to error since there is a finite amount of time within which to correct mistakes or to insert any special formatting as the broadcast occurs. Further, the cost of these individuals entering the online captioning is quite high, thus restricting the number of broadcasts where captioning is available.
Another method of captioning involves off-line captioning, where the captioning information is provided to the video signal after the event occurs. In this method, an individual listens to a recorded audio signal and manually inputs the caption information as text in a computer. The individual must listen at a pace they are able to accurately transcribe the audio signal, often rewinding as necessary. Additionally, the individual may add formatting to the caption information as they enter the text in the computer. Unfortunately, many of the same problems discussed above with on-line captioning occur with off-line captioning. Additionally, off-line captioning is a tedious and often time consuming process. Typically, captioning an AV signal may take six hours per every one hour of the recorded AV signal. This type of off-line captioning also imposes significant wear upon the equipment being used and leads to uneven captioning.